…As Israel turns 70, unity is not a notable feature of Israeli democracy. The current Knesset includes 17 political parties. The government is a shaky coalition comprised of five of them, holding a bare majority of seats. The prime minister is surrounded by politicians who believe they could do a better job than he can. Josephus, the first-century historian, described Jewish politics at that time as consisting of disputes between religious and secular parties, with numerous Jewish leaders who “competed for supremacy because no prominent person could bear to be subject to his equals.” Two millennia later, not much has changed.READ MORE